Malvin Artley has been a practising astrologer for the past 10 years. He is an
accredited member of the American Federation of Astrologers.
Malvin is the author of Bodies of Fire: An Exploration of the Lesser Chakra System. He has authored numerous articles and was a member of the faculty of the University of the Seven Rays, a non-profit organization dedicated to the teaching of the Trans-Himalayan tradition as expressed through the books of Alice Bailey, Helena Blavatsky and others.His primary focus over the past 25 years has been on the sciences as they express occultism and with bridging work between the two. His
special interests are the human subtle energy system and all
the chakras, or energy centres, physics and technology, astronomy and all
aspects of Chinese occultism. He has done extensive work with Chinese
astrology and the cycles they use and seeks to synthesize the great
Western and Oriental systems on such matters.Malvin lives in Adelaide, South Australia. He also works in the engineering trades and sends out periodic emails about astrological happenings and developments. Click here to subscribe to Malvin's periodic letters.

Malvin Artley looks at the meanings inherent in the current Full Moon in Cancer, the Festival of the Hidden Glory (Initiation). This powerful Full Moon, the Full Moon for Capricorn (since the Moon is always full when in the opposite sign to the Sun) is particularly intense due to the Moon being in her own sign and conjunct Saturn, the planetary ruler of Capricorn. Malvin also publishes a regular astrological newsletter, to which you can subscribe by clicking the link at the end of this article.

Greetings Everybody!

And a very Happy New Year! I trust all of you had a safe and joyful holiday season. As we move into the New Year it is customary to give out a forecast for the year and to look at the year just passed in review. But, custom has given way to Mercury retrograde this time, so I shall give a yearly forecast when I do my letter for the Chinese New Year - the lunar New Year.

It has been quite an eventful time since my last letter to you. Mercury retrograde over this period has brought its share of "interesting" times with it, especially with Saturn retrograde in opposition to it. The earthquakes happening throughout the world are a basic upshot of that aspect as it serves to help distribute the energies of the two recent eclipses and clears the way simultaneously for the influx of energies that invariably come with the New Year. The fact that it has been a major period of upheaval for the areas of the world where those quakes have happened has been a sober reminder of the extreme good fortune we enjoy and also of our frailty and vulnerability in the face of the forces of nature that can come upon us in an instant of time and level the karmic slate, so-to-speak. The transit of Saturn through Cancer carries that sense of frailty and vulnerability with it as the material side of things gets a major readjustment during that time. We are being constantly reminded to offer our hand to those in need, and it is perhaps propitious that the major quake in Iran has come at the time that it has--supposedly being the time of year in the West when we are given reminiscence of the true meaning of Christianity as a faith and are admonished to open our hearts, arms and pockets to everyone less fortunate than ourselves.

Major Readjustment

We entered into the sign of Capricorn on Dec. 21st and thus into the influence of Saturn as the ruler of that sign. It is a time of year when the members of the spiritual Hierarchy of the planet enter into deep reflection and sabbatical from the outer planes and ponder upon what adjustments are needed for the year ahead. Each year sees a synthesis of the year passing out by the Ones who guide our collective destiny and a consequent "tweaking" of the energetics of our globe to insure that everything keeps ticking over as it should and that the Plan continues upon its proper course. It is also a time wherein the same Beings cast their collective eye out upon our vast sea of humanity and assess our readiness for certain steps ahead and to see those Souls among us who have gained brilliance in more than the expected manner over the year.

Most of humanity progresses according to the karmic mold and in slow, graded steps. This is the natural order of things. But, the spiritual evolution of the world has been much accelerated of late, and it is bringing about many surprises in the affairs of the world. Contrary to what we might believe, karma - as represented by Saturn - is a fluid construct and is subject to review and change if we make the needed steps. It is only when we do not make the needed efforts toward the higher life (the life of the Soul) that our individual path through life remains fixed in terms of our karma. Little as we might realize it, the custom of New Years resolutions is a dim reflection of this very readjustment of the karmic records and of the reassessment of world affairs by our Mentors on the inner planes. We will return to this point later in the article.

This year is going to be quite an exciting time in the heavens, as if the year just passed was not! I will not go into much detail, as it would take too much space and it is not the purpose of this article. Aside from four more eclipses throughout the year - one of which holds a lot of promise in terms of the liberation of energies for us - we will also see the commencement of a greater cycle of Venus toward the middle of the year and a consequent readjustment in all types of relationships, most notably with our relations to the greater Life and Lives toward which we aspire.

In short, all of our group relationships will either shift or deepen throughout this year. It will be a Yang year in the lunar calendar and there will be many visible changes on the outer planes as a result. The year just passing out (the lunar New Year is on Jan. 22nd this year) is a Yin year and quite a passive one at that. (The Goat or Sheep is considered to be the most passive of the Chinese zodiacal signs.) All up, it will be a major year for change - and a welcome one at that - and a year that will see quite a lot of inventiveness, adaptability and activity taking place in the world of human affairs.

The Festival of Initiation

With that said, we should get stuck into the purpose of this article--the full moon festival of Capricorn. This full moon will occur on the 8th of January 2004 at 2:41 AM AEDT (7 Jan, 3:41 PM GMT). In the past I have called this festival "The Festival of Initiation (or Liberation)" or "The Festival of the Hidden Glory". (For those of you who would like to know my reasons for these names I would be happy to send on a copy of last year's Capricorn letter. Click here to contact Malvin.) As was stated before, Saturn is the main ruler of Capricorn, being both the orthodox and the esoteric ruler.

Saturn figures very prominently in this particular festival, not simply because of its rulership over Capricorn, but because it will also be conjunct the Moon, thus indicating that there must be a very concerted reckoning with certain facets of the past and with physical plane matters in general. There is an amazing amount of symbolism in this full moon figure. The degree of the Sun in this figure is the 17th degree of Capricorn, the symbol for which is highly revealing (pardon the coming unintended pun), and reads thus:

"A repressed woman finds a psychological release in nudism."

This symbol is indicative of the often sharp polarization between the intended beauty of the of the human form in all its departments (not simply the physical side of things) and the all-too-often repressive attitudes toward the same foisted upon us in the name of religion and by social mores, leading to an entire host of unhealthy and stultifying attitudes toward both ourselves and life on the physical plane in general. It also highlights the sphere of action for the sign of Capricorn - the mental plane, or the world of mind. The mind is the medium through which we set our course and thus put our karma in play. It is also the primary cause of our limitation as people. This symbol becomes all the more evocative when we begin to look at the class of lives that Capricorn has rulership over. We know this Hierarchy of lives all too well, for it is humanity itself - the Hierarchy of the Human Personality.

Capricorn rules this, our own distinct Hierarchy, from the mental plane and, as the occultist knows well enough, Saturn is that planet whereon mental anguish is most acutely felt. But, in this case, Saturn is not the true ruler of the human personalities as a class of beings. Venus is the true and rightful ruler of this Hierarchy and of the lower or little self, which is another name often used for the human persona - the soul being the higher Self.

Malvin Artley is an accredited member of the American Federation of Astrologers. His primary focus over the past 25 years has been on the sciences as they express occultism and with bridging work between the two. His special interests in those fields are the human subtle energy system and all the chakras, or energy centres, physics and technology, astronomy and all
aspects of Chinese occultism. He sends out periodic emails about astrological happenings and developments. These email messages are sent as a gift and a sharing. They are sent to people of many persuasions, not just astrologers. Blessings. Click here to subscribe to Malvin's periodic letters.